We Are Spending More on Home Entertainment

Posted on: 30 October 2012

By:chw staff

According to the latest report from DEG (The Digital Entertainment Group) we are spending more to entertain ourselves at home. Our spending on home entertainment in the first nine months of this year is up 1% from the first nine months of 2011. The growth is attributed to increase in Blu-ray Disc sales, subscription streaming and electronic distribution.

The 1% increase in sales is bucking the trend in our spending on home entertainment, which shows a steady decline since 2007. As of Sept. 30, 2012, consumers this year have spent an estimated $12,342,020,000 on home entertainment, up from $12,215,030,000 in the same period last year.

Blu-ray Disc spending continued to post significant gains, rising 13% in the third quarter alone. Sales of catalog titles fared ever better, rising 22% between June 1 and Sept. 30, 2012, from the comparable period a year ago.

The DEG report says there were 2.8 million Blu-ray Disc players (including BD set-top boxes, PS3s and HTiBs) sold in the third quarter, up 5% from a year earlier. Total household penetration of all Blu-ray compatible devices now stands at close to 50 million U.S. homes.

In the third quarter, 7.8 million HDTVs were sold to U.S. consumers. HDTV penetration to date is now at pegged at more than 101 million U.S. households.